Android 9 Pie for LG V30 and V30S ThinQ : Features and Release

LG launched the LG V30 flagship in August 2017 with pre-loaded Android 7.1.2 Nougat. The bigger V30+ flagship has been released in select markets like South Korea, Australia and India in December 2017 with the same android version that of V30.

Later in February 2018, at MWC, the South Korean tech giant launched the V30S ThinQ and V30S+ ThinQ flagships with awesome AI capabilities and these flagships run on Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.

When will Android Pie come to LG V30 and V30S ThinQ?

As Google released the Pie update early and because of the advantage of Project Treble, LG most likely start the rollout of the Android 9 update soon for its flagships.

However, according to LG’s statement in December 2018, the Pie rollout will begin with G7 ThinQ in Q1 of 2019 and V35 and V40 will follow. Recently, we have received reports from G7 ThinQ users based on South Korea that they got the Pie update. So LG may begin Global rollout of Pie for G7 ThinQ in a month or two, according to tech analysts.

So it seems that V30 and V30S ThinQ users have to wair for long time taste a slice of Pie. Most likely, V30 and V30S ThinQ users stand next to V35 to receive Pie update and receive the update in Q2 of 2019, according to LG’s official timeline. South Korean V30, V30+ and V30S ThinQ devices probably receive in late-Q1 of 2019.

The confirmed rollout dates of Pie for LG V30 and V30S ThinQ flagships will be posted here as soon as LG announced them.

But, LG customizes stock Android with its custom UX interface and removes some of the stock features. According to the changelog of the Pie build rolling out to G7 ThinQ, the update includes the following features : Gesture based Interface, Adaptive Brightness, Adaptive Battery, Pie style icons, Pie styled Media volume control, new lock icon display setting, Dual app functionality and other minor refinements.

Screenshot Editor

This is one of the exciting features coming with Android Pie and also very much useful to users. By using the feature, V30 and V30S ThinQ users can edit screenshots instantly. After taking the screenshot, a notification with Edit option will appear on Android Pie. On tapping the Edit option, the user can edit the screenshot with Markup editor of Pie.

By using the four buttons in the editor, pen, highlighter, undo, and redo, users can easily transform their screenshots to great within minutes. In seven colours, users can draw or highlight objects on screenshots.

Indoor Navigation

By using Wi-Fi RTT (Round Trip Time), Android Pie lets users to navigate indoor in supported devices. It is very useful to navigate inside large multi storey buildings and so on. With the feature, the accuracy of position will be improved upto 1-2 meters. According to developers, the feature has many applications in near future.

App Actions

The Android Pie OS brings an AI-powered app actions feature which provide a whole new user experience. Using on-device machine learning, Android shows appropriate suggestions in various places. For example, when the user plugsin headphone to the jack of the device, a dailog box showing suggestions about the source of music will appear. Using that, the user can swiftly jump to favourite playlist and start playing music.

Improvements to Notifications

Google improved the notifications very much in Android 8.0 and 8.1 updates and now with Android 9.0, many interesting changes to notifications arrived. In Android P, the message or chat notifications appear with small previews and also images as previews. The Google Assistant powered smart replies also appear in the notification shade, so users can select an instant reply.

The user interface of notifications also refined very much. The new interface appears clean and gorgeous. The notifications will appear in both Light and dark themes in Android Pie.

Digital Well Being

Google designed the Pie update to provide not only better user experience but also promote healthy smartphone usage. The Digital wellbeing is currently in final stage of development, came with Android 9 Pie update as Beta program. Digital wellbeing consists of three major features which are Dashboard, Winddown and App Timer. In the Dashboard, user can check details like how many times device has been unlocked, which apps are consuming most of the user’s time etc.

The Winddown feature can be set to automatically change the display to grey scale in nighttimes, thus, reduces eyestrain considerably. Using the App timer, user can restrict the time spent on a particular time draining app to reduce addiction and save time.

Google announced at the time launch of Android Pie, that Digital wellbeing full version will come in this fall. So in a few days, finilized version of Digital wellbeing will be available, so LG can include that in its update for V30 and V30S ThinQ devices.

Gesture-based Interface

Google totally revamped the navigation bar in the second preview of Android Pie, removes the App Previews button totally. Now in the home screen, only a pill shaped home button appears in the navigation bar. The redesigned chevron shaped back button will appear only inside apps when needed. To view app previews, users need to swipe up on the home button in the bar and swipe to right or left to switch between recent apps.

The new navigation bar of Android Pie is receiving mixed reviews from Pixel and Pixel 2 users. However, it seems that most users are in favour of the new navigation system, some Pixel users felt that the new navigation makes split screen multi tasking difficult. If any user likes to revert to the old style, there is an option in Developer options in the Settings menu, to use old button navigation bar.

Android Pie Split screen

Google introduced the Split screen feature with the Android 7.0 Nougat update and later improved in Oreo. In the latest iteration of Android, the Search Giant made some remarkable changes to the Split screen feature. Users using the Gesture navigation have to tap on the app icon in the App previews screen and select the split screen feature, finally select the second app to share the screen with. So some Pixel 2 users feel that the procedure is a bit lengthy and annoying. Even, reverting to old navigation doesn’t solve the problem.

However, in this version of android, the Multi window feature works faster than its predecessor and responsiveness increased. Any how, only one window works and the other one is in paused state in Android 9, same as the earlier version. Google may fix these bugs and refine the feature further in the upcoming Android Q update.

Shush Mode

The Shush Mode of Android Pie is an enhancing feature for Do not Disturb feature. When the user puts the device face down, the Shush Mode activates and disables all notification pings, beeps and Call rings, except from the whitelisted contacts.

The feature designed to reduce smartphone usage by the user and Smartphone addiction. The Search giant may refine the Shush feature further in the forthcoming Android Q update.Update on 9/5/2018 :

A few hours ago, Google unveiled the first Public Beta of Android P at the I/O 2018 event. The Developer Preview 2 system images are also available on the official website for Google Pixel and Pixel 2 lineup. The Beta comes with many interesting feature like Android P AI support, Simplicity, Gesture based interface, Digital Wellbeing, Adaptive battery etc.

According to the installed Google Pixel users, the Android P Beta is working so stable and also suitable for daily use. The next developer preview and the fourth prevew will come in June, according to the roadmap released by Google earlier. In the 3rd preview, Google finalize the APIs, so developers can test their apps for Android 9.0.

Update on 15/7/2018 :

The Beta 3 cum DP4 of Android P update has arrived on July 2nd and already Google Pixel and Pixel 2 series devices received it. The Search Giant made many optimizations to the UI in this update and also included some tweaks to improve user experience. Overall, the preview is very stable and appears very near to the final build.

The UI changes in the Beta 3 include, removal background fill in the icons of Quick Settings toggles, Media volume sliders and Settings Menu. The shape of the back button has also changed from Triangle to Chevron. The lockscreen in DP4 displays upcoming events, so user can easily check them.

Update on 31/7/2018 :

Google released the final preview of Android P on July 26th and begins the OTA rollout for the registered Pixel and Pixel 2 series users. Dave Burke, VP of Android Engineering announced that this preview is the final one and features final system behaviour. So app developers can test their apps whether compatible with Display notch and API version 28.

Burke also mentioned that the public release version of Android 9.0 is coming soon, so most likely within a few weeks we will see the official version of Android P with codename. After digging the final preview, we have learnt that the preview is stable and features no major changes. The Assistant-launching Microphone button removed from the Pixel launcher search bar but may come back again in the public release with a new design. The design of the autorotate button in Quick Settings also changed.

Update on 30/12/2018 :

The South Korean tech giant begins the Beta registration and rollout of Pie for select G7 ThinQ users in its home country in late-November 2018. So tech analysts estimated that LG would start the global rollout in December 2018. However, a few hours ago, LG announced that the Stable rollout for G7 ThinQ in South Korea will begin in Q1 of 2019.

As LG V30 stands behind V35 and G7 flagships to get Pie, the rollout might begin in Q2 of 2019, at least in South Korea and some other Asian countries. The Global rollout for unlocked and carrier locked versions of V30 and V30+ devices might kick off in late-Q2 of 2019. These estimates may change later because of unforeseen technical issues and carriers. So we will post the official rollout dates as soon as LG announced them.

We will update this article soon more details about Android Pie fo LG V30 and V30S ThinQ.